Saturday, March 29, 2014

Philippine soldiers aboard a civilian vessel that engaged last Saturday in spat for nearly 2 hours standoff with Chinese Coast Guard ships near the disputed Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal that is claimed by both China and the Philippines.

The incident was caught on camera by journalists on board a Philippine ship. The Chinese coast guard vessel tried to block access to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. They even radioed the Filipinos, ordering them to stop encroaching in “Chinese territory” and turn around or "take full responsibility" for their actions.

But the Filipino captain was able to maneuvere to shallow waters where the Chinese vessel cannot follow due to a larger displacement that could risk running aground. The Philippine boat is ferrying food to troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal.

The latest incident involves the Second Thomas Shoal, known as Ayungin in Manila and Ren'ai Reef in Beijing.

Philippine troops are stationed on a beached, rusting military ship on the shoal that analysts say has become a symbol of the country marking its territory.

Monday, March 24, 2014

MANILA, Philippines - The Metro Rail Transit (MRT) had a glitch on their communication and signalling system Monday morning that caused hundred commuters stranded. It started at past 7 a.m.

MRT General Manager Al Vitangcol said they implemented a "provisional service," meaning the take passengers only from North Avenue station to Shaw station and vice versa.

Vitangcol said the same problem caused the MRT sytem failure last Saturday. They were able to fixed the problem and regular MRT operations resumed at 9:20 am.

Meanwhile, a man injured himself after jumping off the Kamuning station of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) also on Monday about 9:90AM.

Witness said they saw the a man who was later known as Cristobal Delia of Frisco 26, Quezon City, jump off the MRT station to the south-bound. The man appeared to have mental illness and was immediately taken to East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City. He suffered a broken arm, as well as soreness in his lower extremities.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR/HANOI (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER VANISHED AFTER REACHING 35,000 FEET, 227 passengers and 12 crew were on board. It went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday. Ships from multiple countries around the area are searching for crash wreckage.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport: "We are doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been addressed. We are looking for accurate information from the Malaysian military. They are waiting for information from the Vietnamese side."

Vietnam's state-run Tuoi Tre news also quoted Admiral Ngo Van Phat as qualifying his earlier remarks about a crash site having been identified, saying he had been referring to a presumed crash site beneath the plane's flight path using information supplied by Malaysia.

This would be the U.S.-built Boeing 777-200ER airliner's deadliest crash since being in service 19 years ago, if indeed it crashed.

The plane just dissappeared there were no distress signal just like the Air France flight that crashed into the South Atlantic on June 1, 2009 that killed all 228 people on board. It vanished for hours without issuing a distress call.

Flight MH370, operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement read to an earlier news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Flight tracking website flightaware.com showed the plane flew northeast over Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The flight vanished from the website's tracking records a minute later while it was still climbing.

Malaysia and Vietnam were conducting a joint search and rescue, he said but gave no details. China and the Philippines have sent ships to the South China Sea to help in any search and rescue.

"We are extremely worried," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing before the initial Vietnamese report that the plane had crashed. "The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe."

The flight left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) but no trace had been found of the plane more than eight hours after it was due to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET Friday) the same day.

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Jauhari said.

Malaysia Airlines said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers, including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, six Australians and three Americans. It also said a Chinese infant and an American infant were aboard.

If it is confirmed that the plane has crashed, the loss would mark the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year and by far the worst since the jet entered service in 1995.

An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.

Boeing said it was aware of reports that the Malaysia Airlines plane was missing and was monitoring the situation but had no further comment. The flight was operating as a China Southern Airlines codeshare.

An official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said the plane had failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT while it was flying over the sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh city.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Not one Philippine university or college made it in the top 100 university of Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014. Philippine universities have failed to impress the academic opinion survey magazine.

Harvard University got the top spot, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University is placed third, the University of Cambridge at fourth, the University of Oxford comes fifth and the University of California, Berkeley sixth.

"The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2014 employ the world's largest invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands."

"A spin-off of the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the reputation league table is based on nothing more than subjective judgement - but it is the considered expert judgement of senior, published academics - the people best placed to know the most about excellence in our universities", posted on their website.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) moved up to 21, that makes it the third highest ranked Asian university behind Tokyo University and Kyoto University. Only the top 50 schools are given a specific rank and has an overall score.

University of California, DavisUnited States
Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyHong Kong
Karolinska InstituteSweden
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)Republic of Korea
University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom
University of MinnesotaUnited States
Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussian Federation
Ohio State UniversityUnited States
National Taiwan UniversityTaiwan
Tokyo Institute of TechnologyJapan

61-70

Australian National UniversityAustralia
University of California, Santa BarbaraUnited States
University of MassachusettsUnited States
Michigan State UniversityUnited States
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States
Universität HeidelbergGermany
University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States
University of SydneyAustralia
Technische Universität MünchenGermany
Tohoku UniversityJapan

71-80

University of AmsterdamNetherlands
Boston UniversityUnited States
Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany
Indiana UniversityUnited States
KU LeuvenBelgium
Middle East Technical UniversityTurkey
Université Paris-SorbonneFrance
University of PittsburghUnited States
Texas A&M UniversityUnited States
Washington University in St LouisUnited States

81-90

Brown UniversityUnited States
Chinese University of Hong KongHong Kong
Freie Universität BerlinGermany
Leiden UniversityNetherlands
University of Maryland, College ParkUnited States
Mayo Medical SchoolUnited States
University of Queensland AustraliaAustralia
University of São PauloBrazil
Utrecht UniversityNetherlands
Yonsei UniversityRepublic of Korea
University of ArizonaUnited States
University of FloridaUnited States
London Business SchoolUnited Kingdom
London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineUnited Kingdom
Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore
University of New South WalesAustralia
Université Pierre et Marie CurieFrance
Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyUnited States
RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany
Technion Israel Institute of TechnologyIsrael

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Reported on CNN news Russia state-funded RT has been trending because one of its anchor chair, Liz Wahl resigned on her show while on the air, she posted it on Twitter. She said that she did it because of "ethical and moral challenges" working with Russia Today (RT).

She said that her family escape to the US from Soviet forces during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. She is a daughter of a U.S. military veteran and being the partner of a physician who works at a U.S. military base.

"And that is why, personally, I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin," Wahl said.

"I'm proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth," she added. "And that is why, after this newscast, I'm resigning."

The network replied: "When a journalist disagrees with the editorial position of his or her organization, the usual course of action is to address those grievances with the editor, and, if they cannot be resolved, to quit like a professional."

"But when someone makes a big public show of a personal decision, it is nothing more than a self-promotional stunt."

On her Twitter account, she posted that she is a "Filipina-Hungarian-American. Correspondent at RT America."

Well, I agree with the network since CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are all bias with their reports also and I haven't seen any of their anchors resign on air with that kind of drama.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The US government report indicate the faults of the Philippine government for not being able to address or eliminate the extra-judicial killings and improve human rights safeguards.

The US State Department’s global annual human rights stated:

“The (Philippine) government continued to investigate and prosecute only a limited number of reported human rights abuses, and concerns about impunity persisted. The most significant human rights problems continued to be extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances undertaken by security forces."

The report also said “Philippine has a dysfunctional criminal justice system notable for poor cooperation between police and investigators, few prosecutions, and lengthy procedural delays,” along with “widespread official corruption and abuse of power.”